Working Together for Safety

Let’s go places, safely

Why were 21 Toyota vehicles named “Top Safety Picks” by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in 2013? Because we design them with the knowledge that safety is more than features — it’s the lives of the people who drive our cars.

For us, the journey towards a safe road never ends. This belief, along with our collaborative research efforts, drives us to create advancements and innovations in safety that have helped (and continue to help) prevent crashes and protect people.

Fast Facts

Preventing Crashes

Crash protection comes from crash prevention

Collisions that result in serious injury are often caused by the delay in a driver’s recognition of the situation and their ability to react accordingly. We’ve developed Active Safety Technologies and safety education programs to help make our drivers aware of the hazards of the road, and bring them one step closer to avoiding crashes altogether.

Star-Studded Safety

As you read through a Toyota Owner’s Manual, or even as you view this site, you may hear about the Star Safety System™ and wonder what it is. It’s a suite of six safety systems designed to help when you are in harm’s way, and it comes standard in every new Toyota. The system specifics typically consist of Traction Control (TRAC), Anti-lock Brake System (ABS), Brake Assist (BA){1|disclaimer}, Smart Stop Technology® (SST){2|disclaimer}, Electronic Brake-force Distribution (EBD) and Vehicle Stability Control (VSC){3|disclaimer}.

You Grip the Wheel, We’ll Help Grip the Road

By reading data from the ABS wheel-speed sensors, TRAC can tell if a drive wheel is turning faster than the wheel on the opposite side, which can indicate a loss of traction. When TRAC detects slippage, the system can automatically reduce engine power until the wheel that is slipping slows and regains traction. If reducing engine power isn't enough, the braking system will slow that wheel by pulsing the brake of that wheel.

Enhancing Braking Performance One Wheel at a Time

When a wheel loses traction, a vehicle is hard to control—and that’s why ABS was invented. ABS uses magnetic wheel-speed sensors and a computer to monitor all four wheels while a vehicle is in motion. When the brakes are applied, and a wheel (or wheels) begins to decelerate faster than the others, the system can recognize that it’s losing traction or locked up. In response, the system rapidly pulses the brake at that wheel until it begins to roll at the same speed as the others. At the same time, it maintains brake pressure on the wheels with better grip to help prevent skidding.

Braking Help When You Need It

Brake Assist (BA) is designed to detect sudden, or “panic,” braking, and assist the driver in stopping the vehicle, adding additional brake pressure if Brake Assist senses that the driver is braking too lightly{4|disclaimer}.

Safety to Help When You Misstep

Smart Stop Technology (SST){5|disclaimer} is designed to automatically reduce engine power when both the brake and accelerator pedals are pressed at the same time under certain conditions.

Enhanced Braking Through Force Distribution

Electronic Brake-force Distribution (EBD) is a feature of the Anti-lock Brake System, which helps make up for shifting weight under hard braking. It reduces brake pressure on wheels carrying the least amount of weight, helping your vehicle stay in control.

Helping to Keep You in Control

Vehicle Stability Control (VSC){6|disclaimer} helps prevent wheel-slip and loss of traction by reducing engine power and applying brake force to wheels that need it. The system reads data from a steering wheel sensor and the ABS wheel-speed sensors to determine if the vehicle is following the driver’s steering inputs. If the vehicle is deviating from the direction in which the driver is steering, VSC is designed to reduce engine power and pulse the left- or right-side brakes to help correct the situation.

Safety Technology Designed to Help Predict, Prepare and Protect

No one wants to get into a collision. But if they do happen, we want to help reduce damage and injury. Which is why we developed our Pre-Collision System{7|disclaimer} that uses radar technology to not only warn you when there is a high probability that a frontal collision will occur, but will even apply the brakes and automatically retract your seatbelt if the system determines an impact is imminent.

Helping to Steer You Toward Safety

To help keep our roads safe for everyone (not just drivers), we've developed Pedestrian Safety Systems. A Pre-collision System (PCS) uses automatic steering, in addition to increased pre-collision braking force and automatic braking, to help prevent collisions with pedestrians. In cases where automatic braking alone isn't enough to prevent a collision, Pedestrian-avoidance Steer Assist can help actually steer your vehicle away from a pedestrian when the system determines that a collision cannot be avoided.

We’ve Also Got Eyes on the Road

Even with properly adjusted mirrors, you may have difficulty seeing to the side and rear of you in the next lane. That’s why the Blind Spot Monitor (BSM){8|disclaimer} with Rear Cross-Traffic Alert (RCTA){9|disclaimer} are here to help. With radar to scan these blind spots, a small warning signal on the correct side mirror lets you know when another vehicle has come into them.

Helping to Keep You Out of Harm’s Way

With Lane Departure Alert{10|disclaimer}, if you deviate from your lane, your Toyota vehicle lets you know. When driving over 32 mph or more on a road that has visible lane markers, the system uses a specialized camera to recognize visible lane markers and judges when you've drifted away from them. Once you do, your vehicle emits an audible beeping sound and an indicator light flashes on the instrument panel.

We’ll Help Light the Way

While your high beams may be helpful for you, they can be distracting to oncoming drivers. And while the conscientious driver will turn them on and off for their fellow motorists, with our Automatic High Beam{11|disclaimer}, you don’t have to think about it. The system helps detect oncoming vehicles as far away as 2000 feet and, depending on the circumstances, automatically switches the high beams on and off.

We've Got Your Back (So to Speak)

Whether you’re parallel parking or getting out of a tight driveway, our backup camera{12|disclaimer} helps guide your way. When you shift into reverse, the camera turns on and an image of what’s visible to the camera behind you will appear on the touch-screen display. Consider it our vision of safety.

Let’s get smart about safe driving

The most important safety feature of any car is the one located behind the wheel: the driver. That’s why we created our Go Safely initiative — a variety of safety education programs that help develop better drivers of all ages.

The first year after a teen gets their license will be one of the most dangerous of their life. So we developed extensive programs to educate teen drivers and their parents. We’ve also worked with organizations like the AARP to create specially designed programs for adults. After all, we believe that a well-educated driver is a safe driver.

We design cars that help protect people from harm—including pedestrians. That’s why we developed an innovative body structure for our vehicles that helps reduce injuries to pedestrians in low speed accidents.

Safe Driving for All

Saved by Sienna

Let’s move towards a safe world

We believe that everyone deserves to be safe. Whether it’s our Collaborative Safety Research Center (CSRC), our innovations in advanced active safety research vehicles or our evolution of the crash test dummy, we’re making the journey towards a safe world as smooth a ride as possible.

Safety in numbers

When opposing forces connect, it’s a collision. But when forces work together, that’s collaboration. Knowing that when good ideas are shared, great things happen, we created the Collaborative Safety Research Center (CSRC).

Based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the CSRC is a consortium of some of the brightest minds in a range of fields working together. So far we’ve announced 26 projects, in partnership with 16 different research institutions, to think bigger and better about automotive safety.

Our results are shared with automotive professionals, the national academic community, government regulators, nonprofits and researchers in our industry and beyond. We want the research, models and tools developed between our engineers and partners to benefit everyone on the road.

The future of safety begins today

Tomorrow’s safety features are the result of today’s innovations. We’re helping to ensure an even brighter future with next-generation technologies like our advanced active safety research vehicle and computer-based virtual human models known as THUMS.

Let's drive together

We see a future where your car will actively be your co-pilot. The advanced active safety research vehicle is an experimental car that brings together innovations in radar sensors, stereo cameras, data collection and processing that will help your car be an active participant in a safe driving experience.

The thought behind this research is to help “eliminate future traffic-related fatalities and injuries.” Now that’s a future we can all get on board with.

The next-generation crash test dummy

Crash test dummies have given us a good deal of data in the field of automotive safety, but they don’t always tell the whole story. Since 1997 Toyota has been developing computerbased virtual human models, known as THUMS (short for Total HUman Model for Safety) to analyze and simulate the injuries sustained by vehicle occupants and pedestrians in actual car crashes.

And since 2000, we’ve shared our THUMS technology with more than 30 organizations across a variety of industries, including other car companies and research institutes.